Teachers' role in child protection _20231111_132848_0000.pdf
1. AZEEZ
Teacher's role in Child
Protection
What can teachers do?
Children can be subjected to
neglect, abuse, violence and
exploitation anywhere. There is
some abuse that may happen
inside the school premises, while a
lot of it is what children suffer at
home and in non-school
environments. A child in your class
may be a victim of
You have the complete safe
in the hands of teachers
DATE: 11.11.2023
PUBLISHED
THE NATIONAL UN VOLUNTEERS-INDIA
2. violence/abuse/exploitation that
happens outside the school. You
cannot ignore it. Rather you must
help the child. This too is possible
only if you are able to identify that
there is a problem and you spend
time to understand it and explore
possible solutions.
Always remember that your duty
to protect children does not come
to an end once you are out of the
school premises. The life of a child
who is out of the school system
can be changed with your positive
intervention. You just have to
prepare yourself for it and know
more about their problems as well
as what you can do to help.
3. Once you are mentally prepared
and equipped to tackle the
problem you will be able to do
many things you have never
dreamt you are capable of doing.
Are you a child-friendly teacher?
Understand children’s rights as
human rights and create such
awareness in the community as
well.
Make children feel it is
worthwhile attending your class.
Be open to learning.
Be a Friend, Philosopher and
Guide to the child.
Make the classes interesting and
informative. Avoid one-way
4. communication and give
opportunities to children to
come up with their doubts and
queries.
Learn to recognise and identify
abuse, neglect, learning
disorders and other not so visible
disabilities.
Create a relationship where
children can express their views,
concerns, anguish, fear etc. Try
to engage with children in
informal discussions.
Be a good listener. Share and
discuss various issues and
problems which children are
facing either in school or at
home.
5. Encourage children’s
participation in matters that
affect their lives.
Build children’s capacities to
participate effectively.
Organise meetings of children
with school authorities.
Discuss child rights issues with
the parents in the PTA meetings.
Say NO to corporal punishment.
Use positive reinforcement
techniques like dialogue and
counselling to discipline children.
Say NO to discrimination. Take
active steps to reach out to
children from minority and other
discriminated groups.
6. Stop negative stereotyping and
discrimination against working
children, street children, child
victims of sexual abuse,
trafficking, domestic violence or
drug abuse and children in
conflict with law, to name a few
categories of those who need
protection.
Stop use of child labour in your
home and workplace.
Be democratic but not
unstructured.
Ensure children are protected
within the school as well as in the
community, even if it requires
calling the police and
taking/facilitating legal action.
7. Encourage them to put forward
their views before the adults and
the community.
Involve children in organising
events. Give them
responsibilities and at the same
time give them the required
guidance.
Take children to nearby places
for picnics and pleasure trips.
Engage children in
discussions/debates/quiz and
other recreational activities.
Encourage education and
participation of girls through
creative measures within the
classroom.
8. Follow-up on girls who drop out
or attend irregularly to ensure it
does not continue.
All teachers can help in creating
and strengthening a protective
environment around children.
Your observations are important,
as they alone will help you to
assess the growth and progress
of a child in your class. If you see
a problem, your next step should
be to explore what could be the
possible reason.
Next question to yourself should
be whether the child is under any
pressures from family, relatives
or friends.
9. Preserving the rights of an HIV
infected child
Spend some time with the child
privately, without being
imposing, humiliating and
creating an embarrassing
situation for the child.
Help the child express her/his
problem either through drawing
and painting or by writing a story
or simply talking to you or the
school counsellor/social worker
or to a friend in the class.
Impart sex education to children
based on their age and level of
maturity.
10. Inform the children about
HIV/AIDS. How it spreads and
affects an individual, and how
can we prevent it from spreading
further?
Create and enabling environment
in the class-room to ensure that
infected and affected kids are
not stigmatised. Creating and
strengthening a protective
environment for children
requires many levels of
engagement, which in turn
demand dialogue, partnerships,
and coordination based on a
shared analysis. Many of its
components correspond to
traditional development
11. activities and approaches, such
as improving basic services,
monitoring results, and
recognising individuals as actors
in their own development.
Teachers must be aware of the
government’s schemes for
children and what they have to
offer. Identify children and
families that require assistance
and could be helped through any
of the existing Government
schemes. A list of such children
and families can be handed over
to your Block / Taluka / Mandal
Panchayat Member or BDPO
directly. People you must liaise
with if you want to protect
12. children include:
• The Police.
• Your Panchayat/Municipal
Corporation Head/Member.
• Anganwadi Workers.
• ANMs.
• Block/Taluka/Mandal and Zila
Panchayat Members.
• Block Development Officer
(BDO) or Block Development and
Panchayat Officer (BDPO).
• Community Development
Officer (CDO) or Community
Development and Panchayat
Officer.
• District Magistrate/ District
Collector.
• Nearest Child Welfare
13. Identifying Child Sexual Abuse
Identifying Child Sexual Abuse
Signs of sexual abuse in children
and adolescents
GIRLS
Engages in explicit sexual
behaviours with other children.
Sexually exploitative interactions
with younger children
Verbally describes experiences of
sexual abuse.
Sexually promiscuous behaviour
or total avoidance of sexual
involvement
Committee.• Child Line
Organisations in your area.
14. Excessive concern or
preoccupation with private parts.
Eating disturbances
Sexually relating to adults.
Efforts to distance from feelings of
guilt, shame and humiliation
Sudden fear or mistrust of males,
females or specific places.
Running away from home
Age inappropriate knowledge of
adult sexual behaviour.
Sleep disturbances: Nightmares
and night terrors
BOYS
15. Engages in explicit sexual
behaviours with other children
Sexually exploitative or aggressive
interactions with younger children
Sudden fear or mistrust of males,
females or specific places
Regressive behaviour
Sleep disturbances: Night mares
and night terrors
Acting out and risk taking
behaviour
Sudden aggressive behaviour or
acting out
Efforts to distance from feelings of
guilt, shame and humiliation
16. Loss of interest in previous
interests
Regressive behaviour
Precautions: The above mentioned
signs or symptoms are to be
considered only as rough
guidelines to indicate that a child
is in trouble and that the cause
may be sexual abuse. It is very
important, however, not to jump
on any individual symptom or
behaviour and conclude that
abuse has taken place. Rather you
must look for groups of symptoms
and use your intuition.
Children are often taught to obey
adults. In the process they forget
17. to say “no” to the adults, even if
they do not like the behaviour or
attitude of the adults.
Teach children to say “no” in such
situations.
Ten messages about children with
disabilities
1. Prevent negative stereotypical
attitudes about children with
disabilities by avoiding negative
words, such as “disabled,”
“crippled,” “handicapped,”
instead of “a child with a
physical or movement
disability”; “wheelchair bound”
for “a child who uses
wheelchair”, “deaf and dumb”
18. instead of “a child with hearing
and speech disability”, or
“retarded” for “a child with
mental disability.”
2. Depict children with disabilities
with equal status as those
without disabilities. For
example, a student with a
disability can tutor a younger
child without a disability.
Children with disabilities should
interact with non-disabled
children in as many ways as
possible.
3. Allow children with disabilities
to speak for themselves and
express their thoughts and
feelings. Involve children with
19. and without disabilities in the
same projects and encourage
their mutual participation.
4. Observe children and identify
disabilities. Early detection of
disabilities has become part of
early-childhood education. The
earlier a disability is detected in
a child, the more effective the
intervention and the less severe
the disability.
5. Refer the child whose disability
is identified, for developmental
screening and early
intervention.
6. Adapt the lessons, learning
materials and classroom to the
needs of children with
20. disabilities. Use means such as
large print, seating the child in
the front of the class, and
making the classroom
accessible for the child with a
movement disability. Integrate
positive ideas about disabilities
into classwork, children’s play
and other activities.
7. Sensitise parents, families, and
caregivers about the special
needs of children with
disabilities. Speak to parents in
meetings as well as on a one-to-
one basis.
8. Teach frustrated parents simple
ways to deal with and manage
their child’s needs and help
21. Source: UNICEF, Teacher’s Talking
about Learning
(http://www.unicef.org/teachers)
them to have patience to
prevent abuse of the disabled
child.
9. Guide siblings and other family
members in lessening the pain
and frustration of parents of
children with disabilities, by
being helpful.
10. Actively involve parents of
young children with disabilities
as full team members in
planning school and after
school activities.
22. Constructive Disciplinary
Practices
Source: Eliminating Corporal
Punishment: The Way Forward to
Respect the child’s dignity.
Develop pro-social behavior,
self-discipline, and character.
Maximise the child’s active
participation.
Respect the child’s
developmental needs and quality
of life.
Respect the child’s motivational
characteristics and life views.
Assure fairness and
transformative justice.
Promote solidarity.
23. Constructive Child Discipline - A
UNESCO Publication.
Changing the school environment
- biggest challenge
Is your school child-friendly? This
is how it can be one:
‘Spare the rod and save
childhood’ should be the slogan
and message for children, their
parents and community at large.
A school must have a trained
counsellor to help children
showing signs of psychological
and emotional problems and to
provide necessary counseling to
both the children and their
parents/guardians.
24. A school must have a social
worker to generate positive peer
response, family response and
community response.
Regular and periodic PTAs should
become an essential feature.
PTAs should provide a platform
for dialogue between teachers
and parents on the child’s overall
development and not just
progress in class.
Training and sensitization
activities with teachers on child
rights must become a regular
feature just as teachers are sent
for academic trainings by various
schools on a regular basis.
25. Fora for children’s participation
in matters affecting them inside
the school should be created.
Sex Education should be made
an essential component of life
skill education imparted in
schools.
Basic facilities like toilets and
drinking water for children must
be made available within the
school premises. Toilets for boys
and girls should be separate.
For schools that function from a
tent or a small room, adequate
breaks for toilet and drinking
water must form a routine.
Disabled-friendly infrastructure
and teaching-learning materials
26. reflect on a school’s sensitivity
towards the disabled children.
Ensure that you have it all or at
least what your resources can
best permit. Local resources can
be mobilized to fulfill this need.
There should be no vendors in
and around the school premises.
Schools that strictly discourage
employment of children for
domestic work by its teachers
actually establish a best practice
to be followed by all in the
community.
Evolving peer groups to check
drug abuse or any other form of
abuse taking place within the
27. school premise is a good practice
that schools must adopt.
Guidelines are set up and
followed for disciplinary
enquiries and action against
teachers or other school
karamcharis reportedly involved
in child sexual abuse within the
school premises or outside.
Guidelines, rules and norms are
laid out to deal with
discrimination on grounds of
gender, disability, caste, religion
or HIV/AIDS reported within the
school premises.
Schools should set up a child
protection monitoring unit or cell
involving children, their parents,
28. Theme based recreational
activities to involve children
and panchayats / municipal
councils. The role of this unit
could be to maintain records of
children needing care and
protection and to report cases of
child abuse to the police or other
concerned authorities.
Discussions/debates/quiz
Story telling
Painting, local art (specific to the
region)
Skits/plays/theatre arts
Pottery and other crafts
Puppet making
Face painting
